Paid News
Paid news
is a phenomenon in Indian Media, that refers
to systematic engagement of mainstream media outlets in publishing favorable
articles in exchange for payments.
In simple terms Media outlets favor one particular party for
some payment.
The issue- The election commission of India (ECI) holds that paid
news or analysis appearing in any media for a price of cash or for some other
reward plays a significant role in the context of free and fair elections. It also involves under reporting of election
expense.
Various incidents associated with different parties have
been found which included the name of three leading Hindi newspaper.
As per report of The Indian Express, Madhya Pradesh saw the third
highest number of paid news cases among the 22 states during assembly elections
held between 2010 to 2013. Punjab and Gujarat has the worst number.
Election commission has written about it the Union government
about paid news and suggested that paid news should be treated as electoral
offence under RPA. Law Commission report from 2015 also recommends amending to
this affect.
What does the law say?
There is no specific law to deal with paid news in Indian
constitution, however, under section 10 of Representation of people’s Act ,
deals with misreporting of funds.
But the same Representation of People’s Act has section 77,
which has provision of political advertisement.
What should be done?
There should be a law against the paid news. The news
analyses can be misleading and hamper free and fair elections. People tend to
trust the articles, which may again lead to a psychological manipulation of the
crowd.
The government should avoid considering it as the press
regulations, it is a poll regulation.
The Registration of Newspaper and Publication Bill 2013 was
introduced, but later on some other provisions were included in the bill, which
included the suspension of publication for a periods of 45 days.
